Medical

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live....

A practical guide to aging and health for women who have felt ignored or marginalized by the medical profession, from a leading OB/GYN and expert on menopausal and post-reproductive health....

When Abraham Verghese, a physician whose marriage is unraveling, relocates to El Paso, Texas, he hopes to make a fresh start as a staff member at the county hospital....

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine....

Deeply moving and revealing, Hour of the Hear chronicles the challenges and breakthroughs that come from a wholly new practice of one-hour, one-time-only sessions, from one of the most prominent psychotherapists of our time

A searing, deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery traces one young woman’s journey from diagnosis to remission to reentry into “normal” life....

In Letters to a Young Therapist, Dr. Pipher shares what she has learned in 30 years as a therapist, helping warring families, alienated adolescents, and harried professionals restore peace and beauty to their lives....

Sharon Stone, one of the most renowned actresses in the world, suffered a massive stroke that cost her not only her health, but her career, family, fortune, and global fame....

The award-winning New York Times bestseller about the extraordinary things that can happen when we harness the power of both the brain and the heart....

Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander recounts his own remarkable near-death experience—fans of 7 Lessons from Heaven.

After being given a terminal diagnosis with only a few weeks to live, Jane McLelland dug up research, some decades old, in her quest to survive. Rather than aiming to cure cancer, which in many cases is unachievable, Jane's approach was to stop it growing.

The powerful memoir of one woman’s experience with psychiatric diagnoses and medications, and her journey to discover herself outside the mental health industry

Marsha Linehan tells the story of her journey from suicidal teenager to world-renowned developer of the life-saving behavioral therapy DBT, using her own struggle to develop life skills for others....

When 24-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. Days earlier, she had been on the threshold of a new, adult life....

An editor at This American Life reveals the searing story of the secret binge-eating that dominated her adolescence and shapes her still....

The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with 12 children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease....

In My Stroke of Insight, Taylor shares her perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery, and the sense of omniscient understanding she gained from this inspiring voyage....

In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the New York Times columnist tells the story of his five-year struggle with a disease that officially doesn't exist, exploring the limits of modern medicine and the secrets that only suffering reveals....

Hospice nurse Penny Hawkins Smith brings transparency and levity to the grim topic of death while revealing truths about the reckless past that influenced her decision to become a hospice nurse.

Atul Gawande explores how doctors strive for best performance in the face of obstacles that sometimes seem insurmountable - in Boston, India, Iraq, and in malpractice courtrooms....

Kate Bowler is a professor at Duke Divinity School with a modest Christian upbringing, but she specializes in the study of the prosperity gospel, a creed that sees fortune as a blessing from God and misfortune as a mark of God's disapproval....

For fans of Hidden Figures and Radium Girls comes the remarkable story of three Victorian women who broke down barriers in the medical field to become the first women doctors, revolutionizing the way women receive health care....

In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Tracy Kidder’s magnificent account shows how one person can make a difference....

An exquisite memoir about how to live - and love - every day with "death in the room"....

Twenty-two-year-old Jennifer Worth, from a comfortable middle-class upbringing, goes to work as a midwife in the direst section of postwar London....

At age fourteen, Laura Delano saw her first psychiatrist, who immediately diagnosed her with bipolar disorder and started her on a mood stabilizer and an antidepressant. At school, Delano was elected the class president and earned straight-As and a national squash ranking; at home, she unleashed all the rage and despair she felt, lashing out at her family and locking herself in her bedroom, obsessing over death.

Seventeen years ago, when Rebecca Thompson endured a string of life-threatening pregnancy losses and rare medical conditions, her training as a physician didn’t protect her from feeling isolated and overwhelmed. What she longed for was a community of women—or even one encouraging story—to reassure her that she wasn’t alone. Deciding to create the community she couldn’t find in her own time of need, Dr. Thompson reached out to friends, patients, and medical colleagues and asked them to share the stories of their personal journeys to parenthood.

What does it mean to live in a body? For Gabriel Weston, there was always something missing from the anatomy she was taught at medical school. She’d forged an unconventional path, first studying humanities and getting an entry-level job in publishing, before a spark of inspiration set her on the path to becoming a doctor.

At eighteen, Bailey Williams bolted from her strict Mormon upbringing to a Marine recruiting office to enlist as a 2600—a military linguist. But the first language the Marine Corps taught her wasn't Arabic, Farsi, or Dari. It was how Marines speak to, and about, women. Determined to prove she's not whatever it is the men around her believe a woman to be, Private Williams turned to an eating disorder, intending to show her discipline through the visible testament of bone. She ran endurance distances on an increasingly Spartan diet, shoving through her own body's resistance.

Work over load. Constantly changing policies. Increasing bureaucratic regulations. These are just a few of the challenges health care providers face every day; Challenges that limit the ability to provide excellent patient care. After being blinded and suffering catastrophic injuries at the hands of a drunk driver, Marcus Engel witnessed health care from the other end of the stethoscope. Through 300 hours of reconstructive facial surgery, and years of hospitalization, rehab and recovery, Marcus witnessed firsthand, the good, the bad and the ugly of patient care.

La doctora Gloria Villalba vive la neurocirugía no solo con auténtica pasión, sino como una autentica adicción. En este impactante libro se desnuda sin censura y nos muestra una personalidad indomable, que contrasta con una sensibilidad y empatía extraordinarias. Porque, como ella mismo confiesa, no le ha sido fácil -ni le sigue siendo- trabajar en una profesión con zonas muy oscuras, donde la integridad y la justicia demasiado a menudo brillan por su ausencia.

Born into a daring, musical family in 1886, Annette Kellerman was a force of nature and made for the stage – her first love – and encouraged to defy social norms from a young age. But after she was diagnosed with rickets as a child she took up swimming for therapy, and soon she became an Australian champion, beating boys, breaking records and astonishing huge crowds by diving from great heights. By 1905, Kellerman was 18 and on her way to England in an attempt to swim the Channel and challenge endurance records in the Thames.

We’ve all had our good days where we’ve wished for time to freeze and wanted some memories to stay with us forever. Life changes and this is inevitable. We cannot always get what we wish for and acceptance of this fact is wherein lies the beauty of it all. It takes knowing sadness to know what happiness is, listening to noise to appreciate silence, and dealing with one’s absence to value presence. Some people just want to live a happy life, and Angela was certainly one of them. Living her life to its fullest, she was convinced that it couldn’t get any better or any worse.

Dismissed not only explains what so many people feel so profoundly—that the system is working against them. It also reveals what health-care practitioners, patients, and society in general can do to make it right.

In this deeply personal account, Dr. Curtis Boyd and Dr. Glenna Halvorson-Boyd reflect on their lives in abortion care, from the childhood experiences that shaped their paths to the Supreme Court decision that forced the closure of their Dallas clinic. Their stories begin in the 1960s, as Curtis opens a clandestine abortion practice while breaking with the beliefs of his Baptist family and Glenna pursues psychology while coming to understand the world of restrictive gender roles.